Weekly Progress Report: Hey, It Works!

 

Well, accountability clearly is a motivator for me, because I had an amazing and productive weekend. I mean, I certainly did not want to report out zero progress, so thanks to those of you that read here!

Update for January, abbreviated Week Four (Fri-Sun)

Daily Goals

• Exercise (Run, walk, hike, bicycle, kayak, do yoga, or lift weights)    Walked 12 miles in total, 6 on Saturday and 6 on Sunday. Skipped Friday because I ran lots of errands, however, I could have/should have gotten my workout in before I left the house. Will work to do better on busy days.
• Practice guitar    Achieved all three days.
• Practice 15 min Spanish    Achieved all three days. I'm using Duolingo, the free online version, and it's fun. As a result I actually did 30 minutes of practice each day, so yeah me. 😊
• Limit processed sugar intake to Sat & Sun only    I had four Oreo cookies one day, and zero sugar the other. Life for me is so much better when I avoid processed sugar, so I may revise this to one night a week only going forward.
• Consume eight cups of water    I consumed 2 cups on Friday, 6 on Saturday, and 5 on Sunday. I am thrilled with my progress, and to my surprise, consuming water has lessened my tendency to snack in the afternoon, and then again after dinner. Plus, I did not have any energy dips throughout the day.
• Complete a unique household chore   I actually did four, one more than I needed to, because knowing I'd be reporting out here actually incentived me to keep going.
• Dust off shelves in curio cabinet
• Clean hanging lights over kitchen island
• Rehang one of the six prints displayed over our family room sofa, which has been off by about 1/4" since they were first hung last year
• Move the recessed light above my bathroom sink in our bedroom to the right about 1/8" to completely cover the opening.

Dust free! This cabinet is filled with mementos from our travels, so it was actually a fairly pleasant task.
Lots of memories as I worked my way down each shelf.

Feels good to know both hanging lights are now clean. Actually found a little bit of splattered smoothie up inside one of them,
which was a bit of a surprise. I guess my blender is more powerful than I'd realized!

Now perfectly straight

Weekly Goals

• Read and finish one book  Yes! I finished White Fragility: Why It's So Hard For White People To Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo. This book, which I highly recommend if you are a white person seeking to understand the subtle racism most of us don't even know we carry around, was thought provoking to say the least. After completing the book, which I borrowed for free from our library, I am left with the knowledge that while I may not be able to step away from much of my subconscious racism, I can be open to receiving feedback when it does manifest itself, in order to do better.  
• Weight loss check in (goal is to lose 20 pounds this year). Yes! My scale shows I lost 1.5 lbs over the weekend, the likely result of 12 miles of walking and good food choices due to limiting my intake of processed sugar. So, 1.5 lbs lost, 18.5 lbs to go.
• Menu plan and grocery shop, including at least one new recipe  Yes! Here was my menu for the week, with the new recipe's in bold, and links to recipes as I'm able to find them online:
1. Sheet-Pan Pork Meatballs with Onions & Artichoke Hearts This was delicious! I served it over a bed of brown rice mixed with lots of marinated fresh kale.
2. Above leftovers
3. Pollo Asado (I buy the pre-marinated package from Aldi's), grilled onions and bell peppers, green salad.
4. Above leftovers
5. Huevos Rancheros with tortillas (From Cook's Country One Pan Wonders cookbook), green salad.  Also delicious!
6. Above leftovers
7. Takeout Pizza
• One game night in lieu of TV  Planned for tonight, and each Monday going forward.
• One reading night in lieu of TV  Planned for this Wednesday night, and each Wednesday night going forward. To be honest, it took a little effort to get back in the swing of reading after the stress of the Presidential election and subsequent efforts to have the results overturned, but now that that is behind us, and because I've now made it a goal on my blog here (i.e., public), I'm finding myself sliding right back into the groove, I have a pile of books (both paper and electronic) that I'm anxious to read, and I'm much looking forward to a night dedicated to cozily doing so. 

Monthly Goal

• January Goal:  Home  New this week: With the onset of shorter and colder days, we've gotten in the questionable habit of eating our dinner on trays in front of the TV. My husband and I chatted about this, and agreed that unless we are having a specifically designated movie night at home, we'll return to eating dinner in our dining room. Our very pretty dining room I should add, so it's not like this is a punishment. Plus, increasingly we are finding more COVID-conscious individual activities, meaning we have more fun things to share with each other at the end of the day than when the pandemic first began. 

Like the afternoon I recently spent helping to paint a tall ship at our harbor. As I painted and chatted with my fellow volunteers, I learned about a sailing club that was open to non-boat owners (they basically act as unpaid crew, which works just fine for me), and a white bass fish hatchery program that was going on literally under our feet. So, much to talk about when I got home, which was a very welcome change.

  

The tall ship I am helping to repaint. Isn't she a beauty?

Up next:

• February  Romance!

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

How about you? Any goal updates to share?

New Blog Direction

With the presidential election now in the rear view mirror, and COVID vaccines on their way, plus hubby having received his first dose last weekend, I'm feeling ready for a new direction here. 

This blog was resurrected from it's dormancy primarily in response to the pandemic, when my previously travel-heavy retirement life was put on hold, and it was a wonderful outlet in which to reconnect and share the stress we were all undergoing. Now, though, with several major stress points smoothing out, I think I need to morph my blog into more more of a structured and/or personal accountability blog, in order to have the motivation to keep it up.

With regard to structure, I'm planning to do a weekly Five Happy Things post, or a weekly Simplicity post. Happiness for me is often about simply paying more attention, and that is an area I want to devote more time to. Simplicity can refer to areas where I've streamlined for greater peace of mind, including clutter, spending, mindfullness, and health. So lots of directions I can go there.

With regard to personal accountability, here are the areas where I want to be held more accountable, and which I've divided into daily, weekly, and monthly goals.

Daily Goals

• Exercise (Run, walk, hike, bicycle, kayak, do yoga, or lift weights)
• Practice guitar
• Practice 15 min of Spanish
• Limit processed sugar intake to Sat/Sun only
• Consume eight cups of water
• Complete a unique household chore

Weekly Goals

• Read and finish one book
• Weight loss check in (goal is to lose 20 pounds this year)
• Menu plan and grocery shop, including at least one new recipe
• One game night in lieu of TV
• One reading night in lieu of TV

Monthly Goals, organized by Theme

• January  Home
• February  Romance
• March  
• April  
• May
• June  
• July
• August
• September
• October
• November
• December

I'll do a write up each week on how I'm doing, including progress on my monthly theme.

Monthly Theme (Home) progress report 

Selecting Home for January seemed like a no-brainer in that we recently completed the last remodel I believe we will do in this home. At this point there is nothing significant remaining to be done inside the house and it feels great!

Purchased/accomplished this month to date: Remodels completed, arches and crown molding removed from our bedroom, new mirrors hung in all four bathrooms, new art and shelving for powder room ordered, received, and displayed, two new lamps purchased for our bedroom, windows cleaned, and new sliding door for upstairs guest bedroom's bathroom doorway ordered. 

Before arch removals

After arch removals

Still remaining: Installation of shower glass for last two bedrooms, which has been scheduled for Monday.

I'll be back on Monday, and then each Monday thereafter to give a progress report, plus I plan to do a second post each week that will alternate between Five Happy Things and Simplicity.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If any of you are tracking goals as well, please feel free to share here how you are doing.

Bathrooms Reveal (Part 1) plus a little of The Eagles

 

Two of our four bathrooms are now 100% complete, including all small little punch list items I needed remediated post-remodeling (electrical outlets repositioned slightly, painting, new towels put into place). The remaining two bathrooms are awaiting installation of new shower glass, which should occur within the next week.

Here is a before of our downstairs guest half bath (i.e., powder room) as it appeared when we first viewed the house in 2017:

Here is how is looked after we did a refresh upon moving in:

What we changed: New faucets, new hanging hardware, new mirror, new flooring, new paint, and we refaced the cabinet.

And here is how it looks now:

What changed: We removed the awkward and very low, wall-to-wall countertop and replaced it with silver quartz just above the cabinet. We installed a 36" tall cabinet, 5" taller than the previous cabinet, which allowed us to replace two very narrow and somewhat useless top side drawers with an enormous 9" deep roll out bottom drawer instead. We replaced the round sink with a rectangle sink. We also replaced the mirror (again) and the toilet. And with the low, wall-to-wall countertop removed, we were able to purchase a normal size toilet, instead of the super duper low toilet that previously existed. Our tall friends will be appreciative I am sure!

Also new are the hanging shelves and made-to-order prints, the later of which I ordered from a wonderful local artist, Emily of Jetty Home. Emily made the artwork for my family room, and I was so happy to have an opportunity to use her again. 

My goal was to avoid the powder room from feeling too beach-y, but still reflect our S. California coastal lifestyle, and I feel like I achieved that as evidenced by how happy the room makes me every single time I pass it.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And here is our prior upstairs hall bathroom at move-in, the one we call the Kid's Bathroom, because it has the only bathtub in the two upstairs bathrooms:

Here is how it looked after we refreshed it upon moving in:

We replaced the fixtures (faucets, medicine cabinet, towel rack, shower fixtures), replaced the flooring (it was carpeted . . . yikes!), and painted both the walls and the existing builder grade cabinets.

And here is how it looks now:

We refaced the cabinets, replaced the countertop with silver quartz, installed new sinks, retiled the shower/tub and replaced the solid glass mirror with two hanging round ones.

I had a little fun with this bathroom. I used a wave patterned white tile for the shower/tub, plus I had picked  out a lighted-hearted piece of art for hanging. This is the bathroom my granddaughters use when they visit, and I wanted it to feel very light and bright accordingly.

This room makes me happy as well!

And finally, just for fun, and at risk of considerable public humiliation, here is a short video I recorded yesterday during one of my guitar practice sessions. This would be me at the six month mark of learning to play on my own. Oh, and you'll note from the little of me that you can see, that I'm still in my PJ's, which I thought was perfect, because, COVID!

Take It Easy by The Eagles

My Husband Has A Vaccine Appointment!

This feels a bit crazy, but I was able to get my husband a vaccine appointment after reading that California's Governor Newsom just expanded eligibility to seniors 65+ years old, and that my county (Orange) was ready to proceed accordingly. So after spending 4+ hours on the Orange County vaccine sign up website yesterday, I was finally able to get him scheduled. 

It was a frustrating process. There is no rhyme or reason to when the appointments for the next available booking day are loaded onto the website. It's pretty much down to luck. If you are lucky enough to make an attempt within about five minutes of the appointments being loaded, you may be able to snag one. I made over 100 attempts before finally getting through. As I shouted in excitement, the first appointment I attempted to grab disappeared before I could click through. My second attempt was successful, however, and we got one. My husband will be vaccinated this Sunday, and my understanding is his second appointment will be given to him then and there, so no website follow up needed. 

It feels a bit surreal.

This won't change my life for the time being, since even vaccinated he can still carry the virus and thus infect me, but I least I'll no longer have to worry about him becoming ill.  Plus, he will now be able to fly back east to visit and help out with our granddaughters in that my son-in-law is back out to sea with the Navy. I wish it were me as well, of course, but I'm relieved that at least one of us can soon go back.

Otherwise, much relief that our home is once again a place of peace and tranquility with all work pretty much completed. Shower glass has been ordered for two bathrooms, and is due in next week, plus we have two small adjustments that will need tradespeople to return, but all of these will be brief and mess free. 

As a result, I've been able to rejoin my kayak, hiking, and bicycling groups and it feels really good. I feel free for the first time in months, and I'm enjoying it immensely.

Here is a photo of where we sat down to eat our lunch during yesterday's bicycle ride. Our high yesterday was 98 degrees, so this ride took some determination to complete, not to mention a whole lot of water. Still, it felt great to return to having my days once again available to spend outdoors.

January In A Sentence A Day

 

1. A very welcome New Year's Day, which we kicked off with a 35 mile bike ride along the ocean with our daughter and her boyfriend, then back to sit out on their warm and sunny ocean viewing patio sipping champagne while they whipped up freshly made lobster mac and cheese . . . I was relieved to learn that the lobster had been purchased frozen when I saw it boiling away in their kitchen(!).

2. We loaded up our kayaks and headed to Newport Harbor to meet friends Ray and Dayna for a six mile paddle on another beautiful day, beaching our kayaks midway at Balboa Island in order to pick up To-Go burgers and, yum, truffle fries, from the delicious Snipe Island Crafthouse, then back home to wash down the kayaks, enjoy leftover Chinese food, and watch one episode of The Crown before falling into bed.

3. A 2:00 AM wakeup, oh boy, five to six hours of sleep seems to be my max these days, but did accomplish a lot as a result - de-cluttered the garage, weeded and trimmed the yard, ran a load of returns to Home Depot, read, made a new recipe for dinner -  but couldn't stay awake past 8:00 PM.

4.  Slept till 4:00 AM, a miracle, after experimenting with taking my HRT pills at night vs in the morning, 

,5.  Slept till 4:00 AM again, so, so far so good with regard to timing my HRT pills, 

6.  Enjoyed a beautiful 7 mile hike along the Bear Canyon Loop trail in Cleveland National Forest with my hiking group, a stop at decadent JD Flannels after for earned donuts (blueberry meyers lemon and cinnamon crumb) a phone call to let us know our new TrailManor travel trailer had arrived and was ready for pickup, then a beyond dismal rest of the day as we learned about the Capital being stormed by angry mobs.

7.  

Five Happy Things

Focusing on things that make me happy (you can substitute 'thankful' if you prefer) is a good practice even when we are not in the midst of a pandemic. Or political chaos. Or remodeling.

So here are this week's Five Happy Things . . . 

1.  My guitar.  I love it sooo much, and am playing pretty much daily in my little office. I have a guitar corner set up where I can simply swivel my office chair around and play to my hearts content. Time flies when I'm playing, and my husband has assured me that the sounds coming from my office are soft, and that he enjoys them, so I'm pretty relaxed as I go along.

2.  The canyon behind our home. I love the space and tranquility it affords, and not a day goes by that I don't spot a hawk of some sort out there, which always gives me a thrill. And every so often we'll either spot or hear coyotes, also beautiful in their own unique way. Yesterday, as an example, we were FaceTiming with our granddaughter, listening to her read, when a pack of coyotes began loudly yipping and howling, so along with several of our neighbors, we went out back to the edge of our yard to listen, holding up the phone so our granddaughter could listen as well. She thought it was wonderful, and of course we didn't tell here the likely real reason for the howls(!).

3.  How large our bedroom 'grew'.  Our handyman removed the crown molding and remaining two arches from our bedroom yesterday (the first arch was removed as the shower was being re-tiled last month) and the ceiling seemed to magically grow taller overnight. 

The issue with the crown molding and arches is thus - the crown molding shrunk the ceiling because it was painted in the same Swiss Coffee white, thus appearing to be an extension of the ceiling, not the walls. By removing the crown molding (which was nowhere else in the house as an FYI) we visually raised the height of the walls by 5", the same width of the removed crown molding. And it really does now feel like the ceiling is higher as a result. And the arches were just bad, plain bad. We have no arches anywhere else in the house, and the exterior style of the home is Cape Cod, not Spanish, so why they were put into place originally by the builder is beyond me. Regardless, they are now gone, the entry between the closet hallway and the bathroom now goes all the way up to the ceiling, and as a result our bathroom now feels immense, so I'm again thrilled with the results.

On a funny note, my handyman's helper was from the east coast and could not seem to get over someone actually removing crown molding. He said that folk where he came from couldn't seem to get in installed quickly enough and it simply went against his grain to remove it. But he did, of course, and likewise couldn't get over how much taller the room visually became as a result.

Going, going, soon to be gone!
(I took this photo from outside the patio door, using a zoom lens just to clarify!)

4.  That our new trailer fits nicely in our garage. This is actually a beyond-happy thing, this is a thrilled thing. Our new travel trailer is officially 18 feet long when folded down for storage (vs. 25 feet long when fully open) but needs just 16 feet of storage length due to it's unique swing arm, which literally swings back alongside itself for storage, as  pictured here:

We knew the trailer would fit in for the purposes of closing our garage door, however, we were worried that the larger size would block access the the storage cabinets we have along the entire rear wall of our garage. In anticipation of that, we had contacted a garage cabinet company and had gotten a bid to redo the cabinets and make them slightly more shallow if necessary. It was not a project I was excited about though because it was not going to significantly improve the storage we already had, and in fact would remove some due to taking 4 to 6 inches of cabinet depth away. Add to that the cost, plus the subsequent need to entirely empty out our garage for construction, and I was not, not, not excited about the prospect whatsoever.

Happily, however, the new trailer fits with ample room to access our current storage system, hooray! Our new trailer is about 6 inches wider and longer than our previous one, but feels much roomier due to having a large slide out dining table and seating area. Thrilled, yet again, at how it all turned out.

Here is my husband demonstrating that as long as neither of us gains a pound there's enough room to still walk back and forth behind the new trailer, LOL.

5.  A home remedy for my dry winter heels. I suffer each and every winter from dry feet, but other than applying Vaseline at night to them I figured I needed to just tough it out until spring. But this winter they've been particularly dry and cracked, and I was beginning to experience pain when I walked as a result, so I did some research online and found an easy home solution to try - simply soak my feet in warm soapy water for 15-20 minutes in order to soften the dry, dead skin, then dry and use a exfoliating brush to remove the excess skin. I did this for the first time two nights ago and about grossed myself out by how much dead skin had accumulated as I was exfoliating. However, they felt just a bit better afterward and the next day, so I did it again the next night. This time there was waaaay less dead skin needing removal, and I could actually see fresh skin peeping through. So I'm going to continue exfoliating every other night, which is way less expensive than making an appointment with my doctor as I thought I might have to do.

No photos and aren't you glad! 😄

Bonus Happy Thing. My new leopard print ultra light Skecher's walking shoes. Love them!

That's it for me at the moment. What's making you happy this week?

Currently 1/10/2021: Stop The Spend!

As I was logging this past week's considerable spending expenditures into our Budget spreadsheet, the phrase 'Stop the Spend!' literally flashed through my brain. I mean, how perfect, given the past eight weeks of insanity and chaos.

However, regardless of the irony of the particular message my brain elected to put out, this last week was a spending whopper for sure, and even though all monies that flew out the door were anticipated, I am relieved that for the foreseeable future we are done with big expenses.

As to where it went, this was the week we paid the remaining expenses of our recent bathrooms remodel, plus we paid for, and took delivery of, our new travel trailer.

But for now we are done writing checks with commas(!), and can instead return to our regularly scheduled 2021 budgeting. Feels good I tell ya! 

Otherwise, Currently I Am . . . 

Organizing  Our travel trailer, our garage, our home. The relief at being done with the our remodel, plus successfully delivering our old trailer for trade in just as we took possession of our new one, has given me the motivation to do some significant decluttering of our home. 

In the house, a few display items went to Salvation Army as I continue to focus on fewer but more meaningful items in our home. 

In the garage we let go of a good chunk of holiday decor items in one of our storage cupboards as I realized that my desire for increased simplicity did not lend itself to cluttering up my home with seasonal tchotchke's. Hard initially, because there were memories of enjoying these items when my daughters were younger and still here at home (😢), but much relief once they finally got bundled up for removal, a sure sign it was time to say goodbye.

Also, our trailer unpacking (old trailer) and subsequent repacking (new trailer) resulted in some aspirational item being shed. We have learned we are lazy RV'ers, and want minimal set up and breakdown, so we set aside a small EZ-up we'd been hauling around unused for years, plus a gas BBQ and accompanying 1 pound propane canisters -  our George Foreman grill, which we also carry around, is so much smaller and easy to use in that it just plugs in. We also removed some excess serving bowls and utensils, because with our limited storage and fridge capacity there is pretty much zero chance that large quantities of anything will be coming out of our trailer anytime soon. Simplicity rules the day when we RV due to the smallness of our kitchen area.

Stock photo from manufacturer.
Our trailer has two additional hanging cupboards, but the prep space is the same, so,
as I indicated above, we keep our meals pretty simple when traveling.
I carry a toaster oven, a George Foreman grill, and a small crockpot, in
addition to the travel trailer's two burner stove.
Plus, see that fridge in the right corner? Small!!!

Buying  These two lovely eucalyptus leaf prints, a tree that we are surrounded by here in S. California, both from the wonderful Emily of Jetty Home. I purchased six of her canvas prints when we updated our family room last year, and these two will be displayed on hanging shelves in our newly remodeled powder room. 

I find that I'm craving calmness the older I get, and the simplicity of these two prints absolutely delights me.

Plus I purchased my first air fryer, a combined toaster/oven/air fryer, for our new travel trailer. A small size was critical due to the limited counter space in the trailer, so I landed on this one from Black+Decker, that comes in at a petite 15.5" wide, just one inch wider than the Black+Decker 15 year old toaster oven it's replacing:

Fifteen years service from our prior Black+Decker toaster oven is impressive, so I expect/hope the same from this one. 

Reading  Nothing this past week due to being so distracted by the news, plus the arrival of our new travel trailer. I have several books waiting to be read, however, so that is my goal this next week. On that list is finishing White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo, an unbelievably compelling read. As much as I've attempted to educate myself with regard to inherent racism in order to do better, this book is giving me more to think about than I had even known needed thinking about. Also waiting to be finished is the third book in the Chronicles of Narnia series by C.S. Lewis, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, which has been absolutely delightful so far. Still waiting to be started is Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond, for an upcoming book club discussion, plus a re-read of the illustrated version of The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown. As I previously indicated, Dan Brown is not necessarily my favorite author, however reading the illustrated versions of his books is pretty interesting in that he so mixes the factual with the fictional.

Cooking  Several recipes from On-Pan Wonders by Cooks Country. My foodie youngest daughter introduced me this cookbook, and it is excellent. I most recently made Lemony Chicken with Wilted Spinach and Potatoes and it was delicious. I'd post the recipe, except Cooks Country puts all their recipes behind paywalls, however it is available to view on Amazon if you click on the Look Inside Icon and scroll forward a few pages. It's the fourth recipe in the cookbook.

Excited  We have a handyman in for the next three days, beginning tomorrow. He is going to repaint our bathrooms, all looking a little disheveled from their recent remodel, hang the final mirrors, remove the crown molding from our bedroom, the only room with it in the entire house and thus out of character, plus remove two arches in our bedroom, which should both update and visually enlarge the room. After that, we are done other than awaiting installation of our shower glass, and a sliding privacy door in our guest bedroom. Neither should cause any follow up repair work, so we are definitely approaching the finish line. 

Goodbye arches and crown molding!

Not to much to get excited about otherwise, because, well, pandemic.

Amused  My east coast daughter has an enormous heart, and as a result she has been fostering dogs for a rescue organization. Recently she had a sweet little elderly cocker named Terry, that was quickly adopted by an older couple. Currently she has a three month old puppy rescued from a hoarder that had 42, wait for it, Great Danes. Yep, she has a three month old Great Dane currently with the biggest paws I've ever seen. Oh lordy, for her sake, as the primary pooper-scooper, I hope the little gal gets adopted quickly!

Side note, she was in downtown DC picking up the new puppy one day before The Capital horror occurred, which initiated another round of intense emotions when she told me.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

That's a wrap for me currently. What's up currently where you are?